The Aston Villa high line thread

[Follyfoot]

After watching Match of the Day and also listening to national radio we will apparently get found out big time next season if we continue with our 'suicidal' high line. 

Apparently if Son had waited a split second on each occasion and also finished better we would have lost the game (if my Auntie had a cock etc...)

Is  there merit in the criticism or is it just sour grapes from the London centric press?  

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Follyfoot

[Guest av1]

Sour grapes. If Son holds so does the defensive line, it’s not one sided. 
 

Liverpool have played the same way successfully for years. 

[sne]

It worked, it worked perfectly. Even Kane was offside for his penalty not a penalty.

[lexicon]

It has worked incredibly well, as the number of players we've caught offside shows. It does require a lot of focus, positional sense, and synchronicity along the back 4 but that is typical of the standards of our great boss.

Let the high times roll.

 

[villaglint]

I think the high line works because Konsa and Mings are both very quick so are able to recover if needed. 

Only team I've seen really exploit it is Utd and even they only had 1 or 2 chances of the back of it. 

[sne]

It can absolutely be exploited. Liverpool and Salah will be a big test (if we decide to play in that way against them). But it's hard to argue against the success we've been having with it.

[lexicon]

2 minutes ago, villaglint said:

I think the high line works because Konsa and Mings are both very quick so are able to recover if needed. 

Only team I've seen really exploit it is Utd and even they only had 1 or 2 chances of the back of it. 

I think it's also because they've played together for so long and have a great understanding/partnership. 

[Zatman]

We are the first team ever to do a high line. Maybe we should have hired Big Sam and defended our box only

[Follyfoot]

Just now, sne said:

It can absolutely be exploited. Liverpool Salah and Stockley Park will be a big test (if we decide to play in that way against them). But it's hard to argue against the success we've been having with it.

FTFY

[burchy]

8 minutes ago, sne said:

It worked, it worked perfectly. Even Kane was offside for his penalty not a penalty.

I have to admit that one annoyed me on the day as it was blatantly offside yet VAR upheld it. Where was the lines on the screen? We got nothing. 

[DakotaVilla]

Just now, villaglint said:

I think the high line works because Konsa and Mings are both very quick so are able to recover if needed. 

Only team I've seen really exploit it is Utd and even they only had 1 or 2 chances of the back of it. 

And that was also partly due to the atrocious conditions that day.

MOTD comments just shows how tactically lazy they are and that they really haven’t been paying attention. It’s not as if we’ve just started playing a high line in the last few games. Surely if it was that easy to break then Kane, Son, Wilson, Isak etc would have all filled their boots. 

[DJBOB]

It can absolutely be exploited and requires the right combination of pressure upfront and synchronicity with the back 4. Injuries (see Liverpool) usually necessitates changes to our structure. 

[KMitch]

Edited May 15, 2023 by KMitch
Touched it up a bit

[pete101]

I've no problems with it once there is a plan B , klopp used it at Liverpool and was games where it was failing but his ego stopped him from changing it mid game, the 7:2 was probably a good example or vinicius jr tearing it up in the champions League. I do trust emery to change it for different teams though 

[The_Rev]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest Unai Emery and his staff know more about football than Ian Wright and a bunch of BBC sport researchers who have to cover an entire weekend's worth of fixtures. 

[Follyfoot]

1 minute ago, The_Rev said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest Unai Emery and his staff know more about football than Ian Wright and a bunch of BBC sport researchers who have to cover an entire weekend's worth of fixtures. 

I agree, but having listened to the radio a fair bit today it appears to becoming a 'thing' 

[tomav84]

we've seen plenty of incidents of players going through onside and emi getting there first to head it to a defender...happened at least twice on saturday. emery knows that there will be times players go through on side and thats why he's instructed emi to play as a sweeper keeper to make sure he gets there first.

there's no "getting found out"...it was spurs' only tactic on saturday and we dealt with it either via an offside or emi reading it and dealing with it.

we've got a great defence that hold their line brilliantly and the best keeper in the world who reads the game perfectly. is that so difficult for the media to comprehend? apparently so...

[Mic09]

25 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

I agree, but having listened to the radio a fair bit today it appears to becoming a 'thing' 

What, like Villa doing a Fulham? Or Bournemouth being relegated? Or Kane being a model pro? 

[sne]

Yeah Emi playing in the way Neuer did for Bayern is essential for this to work. He's been great at reading the long balls and coming out to stop the counters.

[duke313]

25 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

we've seen plenty of incidents of players going through onside and emi getting there first to head it to a defender...happened at least twice on saturday. emery knows that there will be times players go through on side and thats why he's instructed emi to play as a sweeper keeper to make sure he gets there first.

there's no "getting found out"...it was spurs' only tactic on saturday and we dealt with it either via an offside or emi reading it and dealing with it.

we've got a great defence that hold their line brilliantly and the best keeper in the world who reads the game perfectly. is that so difficult for the media to comprehend? apparently so...

That’s the risk vs reward. At some point someone will beat the offside trap AND beat Martinez. But the amount of times that will happen in a season is minimal compared to the  benefit we get from the high line.